A Nigerian development scholar, Evans Woherem, has argued that Africa’s slow pace of development is rooted less in the capabilities of its people and more in the weakness of its institutions, systems, and governance culture.
In a sweeping article titled “Institutions, Culture, and the African Development Question: Why Systems Matter, and How Africa Can Leapfrog Development,” Woherem said “human beings are broadly similar biologically and intellectually across races and geographies,” stressing that the real difference between prosperous and struggling societies lies in “systems, institutions, cultures, incentives, and historical environments.”
According to him, one of the clearest demonstrations of this reality is the conduct of Africans living abroad.
“Individuals who, within certain African environments, may tolerate disorder, circumvent rules, participate in patronage systems, or adapt to corruption often relocate to countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan, Singapore, or Canada and quickly become highly compliant with laws and institutional expectations,” he wrote.
Woherem, a former Executive Director at both First Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc, noted that such individuals suddenly obey traffic regulations, respect public infrastructure, pay taxes, and operate efficiently within merit-based systems, insisting that “the human material did not suddenly change. The surrounding institutional architecture did.”
He lamented that many African countries still approach development through what he described as a “project-based conception of development” rather than a systems-driven model capable of sustaining progress across generations.
The author of best-selling books- “Building a New Africa,” and “Information Technology in Africa,” criticised the nature of governance conversations across the continent, saying public discourse often centres almost exclusively on visible infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, schools, and empowerment schemes, while deeper institutional questions are ignored.
“What institutions have been strengthened? What systems have been redesigned to outlive the present administration? What governance mechanisms now function automatically regardless of who occupies office?” he asked.
The scholar argued that sustainable development cannot be measured merely by the number of projects completed but by whether nations are building durable institutions capable of continuously producing results irrespective of political transitions.
“A nation does not become advanced merely because it constructs roads,” he stated. “It becomes advanced when it builds systems capable of continuously producing, maintaining, financing, regulating, and improving those roads across generations regardless of changes in leadership.”
Woherem further blamed Africa’s institutional fragility partly on colonial structures that were designed primarily for extraction rather than national development.
He said many post-independence governments inherited centralized but weakly accountable systems and merely “localized the machinery of extraction” instead of transforming the state into a developmental institution.
The information technology expert also highlighted the absence of what he called “developmental consciousness” across many African societies, noting that issues such as industrial policy, bureaucratic reform, technological sovereignty, manufacturing competitiveness, and state capacity rarely dominate mainstream public debate.
Drawing comparisons with countries such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and China, Woherem said successful industrialisation was driven by strong institutions, disciplined bureaucracies, educational excellence, and long-term planning.
“Their rise was not accidental, nor was it merely infrastructural. It was deeply institutional and civilizational,” he wrote.
The development expert also challenged African media organisations to move beyond “cosmetic” reporting of governance performance by interrogating structural reforms instead of simply celebrating project commissioning ceremonies.
“Instead of merely asking how many roads were constructed, they should ask whether procurement systems have become more transparent, whether regulatory agencies function independently, whether educational outcomes are improving systematically, and whether industrial policies are producing measurable manufacturing expansion,” he said.
Woherem further stressed the importance of “Developmental Industrialists,” pointing to African billionaire Aliko Dangote as an example of economic actors whose contributions extend beyond personal wealth accumulation to building industrial ecosystems and national productive capacity.
He maintained that Africa’s future depends on stronger bureaucracies, impartial legal systems, technologically enabled governance, industrial strategy, educational reform, and a civic culture that rewards competence over patronage.
“Roads alone do not produce civilization. Systems do,” Woherem declared.
He concluded that Africa’s greatest challenge is not a lack of human potential but the absence of institutional structures strong enough to consistently bring out the best in its people.
“And until systems become the centre of African developmental thinking,” he warned, “progress will remain slower, more fragile, and more reversible than it ought to be.”
